


still worship the flame

by crownsandbirds



Category: One Piece
Genre: Afterglow, Implied Sexual Content, Kinda, M/M, Morning After
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 12:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18941032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownsandbirds/pseuds/crownsandbirds
Summary: "'Where are you going?' Ace asks. He clings to the blankets tighter. It's still warm.Smoker throws him a careful glance. 'Nowhere,' he says at last."Smoker and Ace and their not-quite morning after.





	still worship the flame

**Author's Note:**

> "With the roar of the fire, my heart rose to its feet;  
> Like the ashes of ash, I saw rise in the heat,  
> Settled soft and as pure as snow,  
> I fell in love with the fire long ago."
> 
> (would that i - hozier)
> 
> notes: just a drabble, really.

Ace collapses on the bed, stomach pressed to the mattress, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He takes a deep breath. Another. Until he feels like his lungs are working again.

 

A calloused, warm hand touches the small of his back, the palm tracing up the sinuous curve of his ass. “You okay, kid?”

 

The voice is rough, its edges smoothing down how it sounds nearly as breathless as Ace himself feels now. A man's voice. Ace hides his smile on the pillow he's wrapped his arms around, nods. _More than okay_ , he wants to say.

 

He feels a caress on his skin, absent-minded and light. His fire licks up, searching after the fingers touching him - warmth searching for warmth, desire fueling itself, Ace _wants_ , as always, he wants intensely; as fire wants to burn, he _wants_ and _needs_ this man pressed against every single curve of his body.

 

A chuckle - satisfied. "Damp it down, brat."

 

Ace turns his head on the pillow then, lets him see the smirk and the dimple on his cheek. "You know you like it, old man."

 

Smoker scoffs at him, pinches his hip just to earn himself a little scowl from Ace, and pushes to get up from the bed. His muscles move under the skin on his back as he stretches, his broad shoulders covered in long, red trails left behind by blunt nails. Ace appreciates ( _loves, wants_ ) the sight - he appreciates Smoker as a man, sharp and strong and rough, how he rolls his shoulder and pops his neck and runs a hand through the longer parts of his white-gray hair, scratches over his undercut.

 

Smoker keeps his back to the bed. It's still too early for the sun to stream in through the blinds on the small window.

 

"Where are you going?" Ace asks, hates to ask, hates even more that he can't keep himself from doing so. He clings to the blankets tighter. It's still warm from them, their shared touches, their body heat.

 

Smoker throws him a careful glance. Looks him up and down, his eyes piercing and his mouth set in an unreadable thin line - but Ace _knows_ this man, and he knows how to find the discreet glint in his eyes that show he really likes what he's looking at.

 

"Nowhere," Smoker says at last. He extends a smoky arm and grabs his coat, paws around at it for cigars, shoves two between his lips. Ace makes a lazy gesture with his hand, lights them up for him - it says a lot about how comfortable they are in the hours just before morning like this, that Smoker doesn't grumble something or other as he usually does, only takes a deep drag.

 

Slow exhale. Soft white cloud going up to the low ceiling.

 

The scent of the smoke is intensely familiar, and Ace breathes into it near instinctively, the smell painfully comforting, more than it should be, getting him to relax back on the mattress. He watches Smoker's lips around the cigars, remembers the feeling of those lips biting bruises up the column of his neck and down the length of his thighs.

 

Smoker lets out a breath. It sounds like a sigh. "Just smoking."

 

He shifts to watch the ocean outside the small window on the room they rented in the inn. Ace watches him in turn.

 

Smoker is quiet by nature, cold where Ace is abrasive, sharply rational where Ace is dangerously impulsive, _quiet_. He never talks much after sex. He smokes and watches the ocean and throws glances at Ace's direction.

 

Ace yearns so desperately for his attention it physically hurts him.

 

"Where are you going after here?" he asks, unable to stop himself. _God,_ he thinks. _I'm pathetic._

 

Smoker shrugs. "Dunno. Staying in town 'till the log pose sets. Then wait for orders." Another drag of his cigars. "You?"

 

Ace turns on the bed, bends his knees to glance at the purple bruises left on the insides of his thighs, over where he can usually see his freckles. He touches the marks with his thumb. They're still tender. "Gotta go back to Pops at some point this month. Reports and all."

 

"Sometimes I forget you're a damn division commander."

 

Ace laughs a little, presses his thumb against the darkest bruise, delights in the little shiver it gives him. "Yeah," he says, a little airy. "My boys are around town. Gonna let them enjoy land a bit more before going back. You get to deal with me for a few more days before I leave you be."

 

Smoker swallows down the unpleasant taste the idea of Ace leaving leaves on his tongue. "What time is it?" he asks instead.

 

Some rustling as Ace searches for Smoker's wrist watch. "Uh, not 5 am yet."

 

Smoker puts out his cigars on the cheap ashtray by the window, walks to the bed, lies down on top of Ace again, lets out a deep, relieved breath with how _warm_ the kid's skin is, how impossibly warm.

 

Ace smiles. Smoker could cut his hand on the edge of that smile, and soothe his wound with the softness in those eyes.

 

Their lips fit beautifully against each other. Smoker can't help himself as he lifts his hand to caress Ace's handsome face, as he feels Ace's cheeks fire up briefly when he inevitably blushes.

 

Ace lets out a little whine, wraps his arms around his neck, pulls him closer.

 

"Not 5 am yet," Smoker mumbles.

  


**Author's Note:**

> so, an important announcement:  
> i went to the doctor to investigate the reason for my terrible hand pains. it turns out that i wrote too much for too long and developed tendinitis on my right wrist. it's nothing very serious, but it demands for me to put as little strain on my hands as possible, and that's why i haven't been posting as much - even if i /desperately/ want to. but either way, that's why i haven't been here often. but i will be!! in the future!! i have many ideas.


End file.
